CHENNAI/NAGOYA: Finally the sun shone in Nagoya. The last few days were damp and was raining incessantly. Sun was shining on the Indian team too. Wrestler Nitesh Siwach entered the final of a Greco Roman competition at the Asian Games ending India's long 64-year-old wait.
Not too long ago, a knee injury and subsequent operation had forced Nitesh to quit the sport and start delivering milk door-to-door in Haryana. But sports - be it cricket or kabaddi in the beginning or wrestling on insistence from father - has always been Nitesh's calling and he returned to it after consulting his parents.
The decision Nitesh made years ago reaped reward as on Thursday the 23-year-old from Jagsi village of Sonepat district became the first Greco-Roman wrestler from the country to reach the final of the Asian Games since 1962. Ganpat Andalkar had finished on the top of the podium in the +97kg weight category but since then Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers never won gold or reached the final at the continental multi-sport event.
"Nitesh suffered a knee injury while training at the Pratap Sports School. He had to undergo an operation. During rehabilitation, I asked him to help me in delivering milk," father Anand Siwach told this daily. Anand buys milk from his village and sells it either from his shop or door-to-door in Panipat. "He did that for some time and returned to me asking whether he can continue wrestling. I always wanted him to be a wrestler as I could never pursue the sport despite my interest in it. That decision by him made him what he is today," the father added.
Nitesh, who got a bye in the qualification round of the 97kg weight category, started with a 7-1 win over Amanberdi Agamammedov of Turkmenistan in the quarterfinals. He then registered a 9-0 victory over Mongolian Gankhuyag Ganbaatar, the bronze medallist from the previous edition in Hangzhou, China, in the semifinal. Nitesh will be up against local favourite Yuri Nakazato in the gold-medal bout later in the day.
Nitesh's initiation into wrestling
Nitesh used to play cricket in the beginning despite his father wanting him to be a wrestler. He was then admitted at the Pratap Sports School, Kharkhoda. But there as well, he was more interested in kabaddi and used to play the game a lot. The sports school, which is known to produce a lot of wrestlers, however, changed Nitesh's perception as he developed an interest in wrestling.
"He is extremely talented and has all the ingredients to succeed at the highest level. His physique is like Master Chandgi Ram (the legendary Indian freestyle wrestler, who won a gold in the 1970 Asian Games)," Om Prakash Dahiya, director of Pratap Sports School, said.
In 2019, Nitesh won a silver medal at the Cadet Asian Championships and won a bronze medal at the U23 World Championships three years later. In 2025, he bagged a bronze in the Senior Asian Championships and changed the colour of the medal to silver this edition early this year.
Mansi in contention for bronze
Meanwhile, India's Mansi Ahlawat (62kg) defeated Irina Kuznetsova of Kazakhstan 6-1 in the qualification bout before pinning Subeen Jo of Korea in the quarterfinal. The Indian woman wrestler, however, lost the semifinal 0-6 against Nonoka Ozaki of Japan, who had won a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics in the 68kg weight category. Ozaki is also the two-time World Championships gold medallist and silver medallist from the previous edition of the quadrennial event. Mansi will take on Altjin Togtokh of Mongolia in the bronze medal bout later in the day. The Mongolian had won a bronze medal in the 2025 Senior World Championships.
Sumit, Aman get eliminated
The two other Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers, who were in action on Thursday, got eliminated after losing their respective bouts. Sumit lost the 60kg quarterfinals against Sajjad Javid Abbaspourragani of Iran. The Iranian got defeated in the semifinal ending the India wrestler's campaign. Similarly, Aman (77kg) won his qualification bout against Borgil Tuvshinbaatar of Mongolia 8-6 but lost the quarterfinal to Qatar's Shahin Badaghimofrad 0-9. Shahin lost the next bout leading to ouster of Aman from the competition.